Fabric from a Wright Brothers plane finds home at the Henry Ford

Dec. 9, 2013

Jacques Panis, left, president of Shinola, donates a piece of the original wing cloth from the Wright Flyer to the Henry Ford museum Monday. He's with with Amanda Wright Lane, who is related to the Wright Brothers, and Edsel Ford II. / Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The tiny square of spotted, yellowed fabric was once part of the lower left wing of the world’s first maneuverable, piloted airplane, the Wright Flyer.

Visitors to the Henry Ford will soon be able to see it in person. The museum received the fabric Monday night during a ceremony marking both the 110th anniversary of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first fight and the launch of a new watch and bicycle bearing the brothers’ names.

“The artifacts tell stories,” said Patricia Mooradian, president of the Henry Ford. “It gives people an opportunity to get close and up front and learn about history and that history is what shapes our country and gives context to what happens today. Getting an authentic piece of the cloth here is really important to this institution.”

The museum already has a smaller swatch of fabric from the same plane on display.

Amanda Wright Lane, great grand-niece of Orville and Wilbur Wright, said the swatch was part of the brothers’ aircraft that made four flights on Dec. 17, 1903, in North Carolina. The first flight lasted 12 seconds and went 120 feet, she said. After the fourth, a gust of wind picked up the plane and sent it tumbling, ripping the wings into pieces.

Wright Lane said Orville Wright kept the wing pieces in the shed of his home in Dayton, Ohio. A 1913 flood severely damaged them, she said.

Over time, the pieces were divided up among descendants and have made their way into various museums. Wright Lane said her family recently gave a roughly 3-inch-by-3-inch piece to Shinola, a Detroit company that makes high-end watches, bicycles and leather goods. The muslin fabric is splattered with gray spots that Wright Lane said could be oil.

At the Henry Ford on Monday, Shinola launched the Wright Brothers Limited Edition Watch and also unveiled one of 25 customized bicycles. The watch is the first in the company’s “The Great Americans Series,” a collection of limited-edition watches made to honor leaders in American innovation and history.

Shinola contacted the Wright family about a year ago, said company president Jacques Panis. Wright Lane said her family presented the fabric to the company “as a thank-you for launching an American group of products with the Wright Brothers’ name.”

Standing Monday in front of the museum’s replica of the Wright Flyer, Panis and Wright Lane gave the framed fabric to Edsel B. Ford II, great-grandson of Henry Ford, who, in turn, surprised Mooradian by giving the fabric to the museum.